“To kill for one’s irrational love of the flag is almost as awful as killing to satisfy one’s base desires.”

- President Jerome Crevier of the Republic of Flandria before the Imperialist takeover.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Rignon City

“I got nothing left,” Hans communicated with Adelyn on their secure comms. “Almost out of munitions. Coaxials and main gun. I’ll just try to take potshots from now on. This one’s on you guys. I’m nearly out.”

“Start converting some of your AP into rounds at least. Stay at the rear. I’ll try to keep this under control.”

“Clear copy, Captain.”

The battle between the Calamity of Desire and the three women began. Hans on the other hand retreated to a safer position, as he activated his autofabricator. He checked the achievements he received over the battle. So far in total, he received two hundred AP on top of his nine hundred reserve AP from it.

And not a single level up. Goddess, she’s a hard woman to kill.

Hans decided to consume four hundred ninety of his stacked-up AP. That amounted to ten rounds. It was five APFSDS rounds for maximum damage against her and five MPAT rounds to stagger her when needed. And of course, six hundred rounds for his machine guns. Hans looked at the time it would take to finish fabrication.

So one minute for a three hundred rounds machine gun belt, and one minute as well for each of my main gun’s rounds.

He smiled.

That’d mean it would just take me ten minutes to get all of those ten rounds back into my ammo rack and two minutes until I can spray and pray against her. Good enough then.

He looked back at the battle. Alizée and the Calamity of Desire were going at it like crazy. The demon was on a constant offensive, her axe endlessly chasing the little girl. Alizée on the other hand held her at arm's length, as she used her crossbow every time she had a window of opportunity to hit her. All the while the little girl tried her best to run and dodge.

Behind them, Laura kept her staff pointed at her mother. Beams of white light struck her nearly every ten seconds, further helping Alizée. Furthest behind was Adelyn, who fired her main gun against the Calamity of Desire every seven seconds. Explosions rocked the streets multiple times, yet, while Adelyn’s attacks were chipping away at her strength, the Calamity of Desire continued.

This woman’s a massive fucking pain in the arse.

Hans lunged forward. Deploying his machine guns, he tried to distract the Calamity of Desire from above. He jumped from building to building, trying to flank and get to the rear of the demon. I need to shake that lunatic off Alizée. Hans tried to think of any way to do that.

I’ll just use the munitions I have left then.

He picked MPAT. After a few seconds, it was slammed straight into the gun's barrel. Hans dropped on the street as the Calamity of Desire swung her axe at Alizée. When the girl dodged it, almost flying backward as she fired her crossbow—Hans too opened fire.

Almost at the same time, their projectiles struck her. An explosion detonated, as Alizée’s arrow pierced her. Hans charged forward, firing his gun with wild abandon. Then, suddenly, out of the smoke, an axe nearly struck him. Hans pulled back hard on the stick.

“Again?!” the Calamity of Desire shouted with rage before she was hit by Adelyn’s round from behind. Hans pulled away further and further. He realized he made a pretty silly mistake. He was still low on ammunition. I almost overextended myself there for a second. The demon however was undeterred, attempting to charge again in his direction.

“Oh, now, now, you got a problem with me, Mrs. Ambre?” Hans taunted, as he dashed out of her reach, turning into one of the lanes to slip away. Just in time before she sliced him in half. “You know, if you had just surrendered earlier, none of this would have happened.”

“You rascal bought those two here!” She shouted with even more rage. “Is this your plan? To use my blood and kin against me?! Oh, I’ll relish bathing in your blood you little—”

“Lieutenant! I got her in my sights again!”

Adelyn, positioned just behind the demon, fired her main gun. Out came a glowing MPAT round, careening straight in her direction. The round’s fuses exploded behind her, causing a powerful inferno to erupt on the streets. Hans stopped his incessant retreat, as his machine guns were replenished.

If only I had ‘Trace the Dots’, but…

He squeezed the trigger.

This’ll do.

A hail of bullets came from his Wanderfalke. Hans didn’t relent, as she burned in front of him. He kept his guns aimed at her upper body, especially her head. Come on, die, die you lunatic! Don’t you think you’ve been subjected to enough pain?! Soon, with his machine guns overheated, the fresh new belt he fabricated ran out.

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Only clicks came out of his coaxial machine guns.

Damn….she looks awful.

She shambled out of the inferno as the rain extinguished it. Yet she still held on to her axe. More blood poured out of her body, which had been peppered and abused by his machine guns. The brutal burns from Adelyn’s attack almost covered her skin. But it was still magically repairing itself.

Her wounds were slowly closing, her charred skin falling off and replaced by new skin underneath. Hans however wasn’t intimidated anymore, as he held his position. He knew that just like everyone else, she had gone through enough abuse and damage already.

She must be running out of AP.

Anytime soon, and she’d probably drop dead.

“So, are you open to parley?” Hans asked as he tried to buy time to prepare his new munitions. “Your daughter and granddaughter will certainly appreciate it. End all this bloodshed nonsense. They’re still young girls, after all. Powerful as they are, they don’t need to go through all of this. Maybe their parental figure will finally see reason?”

“What? I should see reason?” She laughed in despair. “Do I look like a woman who sees reason? Look around you. I burned countless cities. Thousands of people. Murdered and murdered!”

“Well, you do sound quite unreasonable, Mrs. Ambre.”

“But this is who I am, Grey Knight! This is who I’ve always wanted to be. I can do anything. My name is spoken by everyone with great fear! I have power. Endless power, that I can…I can grow further by killing more!”

She laughed and laughed as she walked forward.

“The more I kill, the more power I have. The more…the more of those little toys I can create. And the more I am feared, the more control I have. No one, no one can step on me. Because of it, I am no defenseless, useless, and weak woman that anyone can use and abuse. I am the one who abuses!”

“So that’s all you’ve ever wanted,” Hans said, as his voice became ever more lower. “You wanted to be the one who controls everything by enacting terror? That’s…the power you desire?”

She laughed even more hysterically.

“Desire! Desire for power! It’s all I ever desired!”

She’s been consumed by her corruption. Hans gripped his control sticks harder. She’s so convinced by it already.

He had seen it once with Alizée as well. How that pure, kind, little girl could be so consumed by her mind’s darkest thoughts, that she manifested that corrupted powers? And then, how she wiped out Rousselot as if it was her revenge on a world that had been cruel to her.

I don’t know what led you to become this way. But…I see that you’re probably the same.

“...You, Madame, won’t ever find yourself in a good place by doing this.”

“Finding good in this world has never particularly appealed to me for so long, sir.”

Hans pulled his reverse gear in action as she screamed and charged at him. She rampaged through the dense city blocks, building after building being destroyed behind Hans. Unable to fully confront her, he had no option but to continue retreating, while taking some potshots.

Behind, Alizée and the rest of the team chased her. Spells and bullets rained on her from behind, courtesy of Laura’s and Adelyn’s attacks. Meanwhile, Alizée charged forward as she changed her crossbow into that of her sword. She swung it straight into the Calamity of Desire, but the demon turned in the last second to parry her strike.

“You should just give up, Lady Ambre!” Alizée insisted as tears started to appear in her eyes. “Mother would never have wanted you to become like this!”

“She’s dead. She doesn’t matter anymore!”

The two continued attacking each other, as Laura and Adelyn positioned themselves on the sides. They used the rubble as cover. Hans on the other hand climbed the buildings around him, as he tried to find a good overwatch position to use. By the time he found one, he watched as Alizée was sliced again on her side.

His gut turned upside down.

“Get her out of there!” Hans ordered. “I’ll take care of this lunatic!”

Adelyn reacted quickly, covering Alizée when she landed on one of the destroyed buildings. Her mech’s machine guns opened fire at the Calamity of Desire as she charged toward Adelyn and Alizée. But a shot from Hans suppressed her. Jumping down on the broken streets, Hans weaved through the rubble and smoke, before engaging his forward leg razors.

It sliced brutally on the Calamity of Desire, as he dragged her away from Alizée and Adelyn. Quickly, by instinct, he disengaged it and ran away, all while spraying the badly injured demon with his guns. She picked herself up painfully again, then went straight for Hans.

“You have no right to be still alive after all this,” she said, as she pointed her axe at him. “No normal man can just get close and personal with me and survive like that. Something’s wrong with you.”

Hans jumped into one of the collapsed buildings and turned his turret to face her.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Hans said cryptically. “It seems disconcerting that I know all your tricks, no?”

“It’s as if you faced me many times already,” she frowned. “This is simply impossible.”

It all flashed back again in Hans’ mind. All those times when he died to her. But in all those battles, while Hans conjured tactics, it also made him learn how to deal with her. He grasped well how agile she was. How fast she was. The intervals of her attacks. Or what her attacks could do.

The fact that he could just charge her at melee range, stab her with his mech’s razors, then run away scott-free, was a great development. It reminded Hans about how he became an ace in his homeland.

Learn how the enemy fights, and you can play games around them.

“All of those I had faced tried to fight me by brute force alone. The two angels you bought here are the same. And so is my daughter. And so is that army you all bought here. But you…you’re different…”

“Yeah, that I am,” Hans laughed. “So what’s it going to be now, old woman? Do you want to die by a thousand cuts from my rat-like tactics, or are you going to finally surrender?”

“Lady Ambre…you should just give up…” Alizée said from behind, as she walked toward the demon. Her sword glowed harder, and so did her red eyes. Blood oozed out from the little girl’s wounds, but it was disappearing rapidly. “I can smell it in you. You’re running out of everything.”

“Surrender…?” the woman gave a silent chuckle. She took a deep breath, taking in the rainy downpour of the city. “You four souls don’t understand it, don’t you? I have sinned so much, and embraced it as a part of myself.”

She looked up at the sky, as her eyes turned ever more languid.

“...If this is to be my last day, then so be it.”